Sunday, February 05, 2012

Smug Stupidity

Under the Harper government, Canada lost its bid for a Security Council
seat – the first time it had ever been defeated. Were a vote held today,
chances are Canada would get even fewer votes.

Consider Canada's performance on the world stage since Stephen Harper became prime minister:

The latest egregious example of truculent morality was this week’s visit
by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Finance Minister Jim
Flaherty to the West Bank. At a meeting with the most moderate
leadership in Palestinian Authority history, the Canadians lectured the
Palestinians on the terrible mistake they’d made in seeking United
Nations membership, a bid that won strong support in the General
Assembly.

The week before the West Bank lecture, the Prime Minister was telling
Europeans how they should deal with their economic crisis during a
speech in Davos. This likely impressed Canadians, but not Europeans. The
last thing they need is gratuitous advice from a North American country
that, frankly, doesn’t count for much in Europe, as anyone who’s lived
there knows. And the advice is especially unwelcome when it’s layered
with self-applause by Canadians about how well their economy has done.

In
climate-change negotiations, the government’s attitude of palpable
disdain for the Kyoto Protocol, coupled with its own deplorable record
of inaction against greenhouse-gas emissions, shredded whatever
credibility Canada might have aspired to enjoy.

And so it goes. Canada has caught what used to be an American disease -- telling the world that it should be more like us. The American authors Eugene Burdick and William Lederer wrote a novel about this kind of international smugness, The Ugly American.

Stephen Harper says he is hell bent on transforming Canada. Do we really want to go there? Are we to be known as the home of the smugly stupid?

About Me

A retired English teacher, I now write about public policy and, occasionally, personal experience. I leave it to the reader to determine if I practice what I preached to my students for thirty-two years.